Worse than any carpetbagger!" That's what a former federal lawman and astute former St. Johns County Commission publicly said about so-called "developers" and their reckless, feckless, Reign of Rruin in Flori-DUH. From Tampa Bay Times:
Developers destroyed a Tampa wetland. Then they tried an unusual move
Officials with Hillsborough County’s environmental agency received a complaint last year about land in East Tampa.
When they arrived at the property, they found an acre of lush wetlands had been set on fire and filled with gravel to make a parking lot.
The owners, who had bought the land earlier that year, had plowed through the center of the wetland, clear-cutting hundreds of trees. They did so illegally and without a permit, according to county regulators.
Wetlands, which provide marshy habitat for birds, fish and other native species, are considered environmentally sensitive and act as a natural barrier against flooding. To destroy or harm them requires a permitting process — which can take months — to ensure construction minimizes environmental damage.
Agency staff showed up three days later and found hundreds of trees had been cut and the land filled with gravel — all without permits. They told the Wilsons they would need to restore the wetland.
When officials returned about three weeks later, they discovered the owners had removed some of the gravel fill but had continued to clear and fill elsewhere on the lot. They had also brought in their equipment, including trucks and shipping containers.
Environmental regulators returned to the site again over the next two months, finding the wetland in a worse state with each visit, said Janet Lorton, the agency’s director.
“We kept going out there in June and July, and they just were doing what they wanted to do with impunity,” she said. “These people destroyed a wetland, and they were told to stop, and they didn’t do it. And now they have to fix what they ruined.”
The Wilsons continued to shirk deadlines, Lorton said. It wasn’t until November that they signed an agreement to restore the wetland.
Deborah Wilson blames the environmental agency for disrupting their business.
“We’ve been here for 15 months running on generators. I haven’t been able to get no power, no water or anything,” she said. “We’re not looking to upset anybody. We just really want to try to get our business going.”
County officials ordered DV Container Services to remove all equipment and gravel, plant 365 native cypress trees and 3,000 swamp ferns and comply with inspections to ensure the replanting takes hold.
Officials also fined the company $4,800.
Agency officials didn’t hear from the Wilsons for the rest of the year and considered the matter settled.
But in March, the agency received a permit application. The couple askedto continue operating on their lot, as long as they built or restored another wetland to offset the environmental damage already done.
They’d also brought on a zoning consultant with a long career pressuring City Hall on behalf of Tampa business owners and developers. The move would soon lead to more friction between regulators and the owners.
A rallying cry
Todd Pressman was dismayed to find regulators would not budge on what he thought to be a bizarre ruling against his clients.
After the Wilsons were ordered to restore the wetland, they would have to move their operations to the south if they wanted to build on the land at all.
The problem: Such a move would destroy a third of an acre of wetlands and remove two dozen large trees, Pressman said.
In his 25 years as a consultant, Pressman had never challenged the environmental commission’s rulings.
Hillsborough’s Environmental Protection Commission “gets it right 99.8% of the time. This is just a pure difference of opinion,“ he said. “I just couldn’t sit still with it.”
He pleaded with Lynch, the agency’s wetlands director, via emails and phone calls. He called a meeting with County Commissioner Gwen Myers, who represents the East Tampa district, and agency leadership.
Then Pressman reached out to local environmental groups.
Carroll Ann Bennett, treasurer of the Tampa Tree Advocacy Group, didn’t know what to make of that first text message from Pressman. The group, which successfully stopped developers from chopping two mature trees in South Tampa and aided residents of Tampa’s Riverbend neighborhood in a fight to save wetlands there, picks its battles carefully, she said.
It was Aug. 18, a Monday, when Pressman asked Bennett’s group to speak against the regulatory decision at a commission meeting Thursday.
In an email to members, she relayed Pressman’s concerns and urged the group to look into the situation.
“Restoration of wetlands can take many, many years and it doesn’t always work,” Bennett wrote. “The (Environmental Protection Commission) is just making the situation much worse by destroying more wetland and trees.”
But Bennett was unsure there would be enough time to unravel all the necessary details. The next day, she told a Tampa Bay Times reporter that her group would likely sit this one out.
“Frankly, it is too complicated for us to figure out in so short a time,” Bennett said.
Trees? Or money?
Lynch’s wetlands department receives more than 400 violation complaints each year. But the complaints about the East Adamo Drive property stood out.
Environmentalists had been leaving messages at his office asking why the agency had OK’d more destruction on the property.
It was the first time he’d seen advocates courted by a developer so clearly in the wrong, he said.
Lynch called Bennett and other advocates the next day and explained the agency’s decision would undo damage already inflicted on the wetland and lessen future destruction.
“They thanked me for clearing up the misinformation, because Mr. Pressman did not represent that,” he said.
Lynch said Pressman and his clients were “trying to create an outcry” when they contacted environmentalists. If they succeeded in convincing Lynch’s office to let them keep their operations in the middle of the wetland, it would save their business time and money.
“That’s what this is about,” Lynch said. “If this was about saving trees, you wouldn’t have done the impact in the first place.”
When asked whether money was the root of the issue, Pressman said it was “one factor among many.”
Owners back down
Lynch received an email early Wednesday from the property owners.
“Please proceed with the permitting. I appreciate all you have been doing for our company,” it read.
The previous evening, environmental groups had decided not to back the owners.
“They should have to restore what they harmed, and they should not be allowed to harm anything else,” said Bennett.
Lorton is confident the site can be restored. Before the Wilsons purchased the property, it had been overgrown and home to invasive plants like Brazilian peppertrees. The native plantings required by the agency could transform the site into a healthier wetland.
“We can’t bring back the wetland. They destroyed it,” Lorton said. “But in the long run, it will be better for the environment.”
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The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida‘s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here.
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